Does the ‘personal edition’ license allow me to produce a binary that outputs a proprietary game format, and also another binary that only plays that proprietary format to be redistributed by the end user?
Let me explain in detail: I want to make a game ‘editor’ in Unity, this game editor stores the games data in my own proprietary format, let’s call them PR files, can I produce in Unity an executable ‘player’ for these PR files that is shipped with them by the PR editor?
I’d sell the PReditor, that outputs in a folder the data.PR alongside the PRplayer, this folder then can be distributed by the PReditor user. Is that allowed?
I dont work at Unity but that sounds fine.
You’re not reselling Unity, you are doing a lot of work to make a game maker/player using Unity.
It would probably be limited to certain types of games, while Unity is very general.
Well, just because I worked a lot on something it doesn’t mean I have the right to do what I want with it…
Surely it’s going to be very specific like RPG maker or something in terms of specificness, however, I’m not sure I made myself very clear, what I’m going to distribute is the PReditor and the PRplayer, the PReditor won’t produce the PRplayer, the PRplayer is built by me in Unity and just shipped along with the PReditor, the PReditor produces the data.PR and copies the PRplayer to the output folder to be further distributed.
Yeah I understood that, I think its fine.
Your player is a *.exe file from unity like any other game.
It uses the data files you made from the editor and renders the game.
I would tread cautiously on this one. Get a specific answer from support.
It appears that making a game engine in Unity might be forbidden under these terms:
It sounds like your project might allow some people to make Unity game without having to buy Unity. As I read it that would be against this term in the license.
Could your project be seen as competing with Unity itself? If developers decide not to use Unity, because they can use your product, that would indicate you are in violation of this term.
Its not abundantly clear where your project fits in all of this. Making a game engine is bad. Making a level editor is fine. Allowing users to make their own games is bad. Allowing users to make mods to games is fine. Yours sounds like something in the fuzzy middle of all of this.
I’ve just read it all, needs interpretation but seems pretty clear something like what I want to do isn’t allowed. I decided to use Atomic for this next project. It has C# bindings and is forked from the awesome blazing fast Urho3d. The good part is I won’t have to wait for the features like decals and navmesh API that are in the works for many years and I’ll certainly need for this project. Urho3d provides all of that plus tons of extras. Thanks everybody.
Its hard to say, technically any game made in Unity is violating (c)! Since all out games are making some functionality of Unity available to others. And they are also violating (d) since your game and Unity are two pieces of software that may be directly competing for a person’s money.
In the end it would come down to if Unity could prove they are losing money because of your ‘game maker’. If that was the case they may take it to a civil court and a judge would decide if you owed Unity any money.
My guess is it would be OK unless your game maker used exactly the same API for scripting and same or very similar UI interface. But I’m no lawyer, I just watch a lot of Judge Judy.
Ultimately it’s a lawyers discussion. But we can discuss it further.
On point (c) the functionality of Unity is making games. The lisence contains specific provisions that let you use some of its libraries in games. But we don’t have a license to give others the primary functionality of outputting games.
On point (d) there is a clear difference between making a game and making a game engine. Game Maker competes directly with Unity. Unreal competes directly with Unity. Call of Duty does not compete directly with Unity. Neither does the latest Avengers movie.
There certainly is a grey area in between, which is why I directed him to check with Unity if in doubt.
